UK Firms Tarry, Rather Than Tackling Green IT Policies

The U.K. is becoming a procrastination nation, according to a new poll, which finds that 40 percent of organizations nationwide have not implemented green IT policies—and 48 percent of the slackers say that it’s because it takes too much “time and effort to develop, implement, and enforce” eco-friendly guidelines.

In fact, even simple measures have been overlooked. For example, 42 percent of UK businesses do not instruct workers to power down their desktops after hours, as determined by the online research— conducted by London-based One Poll on behalf of Faronics, a Vancouver, Canada-based leader in simplifying, securing, and managing multi-user computer environments.

This is despite the fact that an estimated £30.8 million (US$48 million) is consumed every day by idle workstations—representing in the highest energy drain in the office environment after lighting.

However, some of the waste may be the result of gaps in IT knowledge: 36 percent of respondents believed that powering down desktops would hinder the day-to-day activities of staff and disrupt necessary maintenance by IT personnel.

“While organizations have long been skeptical of the financial and business benefits of sustainability, this perception is finally changing,” said Bimal Parmar, vice president of Marketing at Faronics (News - Alert). “The aim of this survey was to assess the rate of change, identify how organizations in the UK are prioritizing their green initiatives in the face of rising energy costs, and gauge how they are reacting to increased consumer awareness of environmental concerns and corporate responsibility – if at all.”

It could be argued that the relatively low rate of execution is largely in this area of green IT policies, with existing strategies usually based on large, centralized initiatives such as data center and server efficiency.

“While focusing green IT solely on the data center is certainly a step in the right direction, it can divert attention away from more basic, everyday measures such as powering down idle desktops,” continued Parmar. “The impact of a sound desktop management strategy should not be underestimated, especially when considering that only 30 percent of a desktop's energy is actually utilized productively. This not only wastes a significant amount of power, but also results in unnecessarily high costs.”

Finally, the research revealed that just 27 percent of UK organizations consider corporate social responsibility (CSR (News - Alert)) and reputation to be the primary reason for enforcing a green IT policy. However, the release of the UK Carbon Trust’s annual CRC Performance League Table (PLT) earlier this month, which details the relative performance of participants under the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme, indicates that there is a growing focus on how organizations reduce their overall power consumption.

“This proportion is bound to rise as the CRC’s naming and shaming of underperforming companies begins to have an impact on brand reputation,” commented Parmar. “Consumers are becoming increasingly eco-savvy and those [organizations] delivering superior energy and environmental performance are beginning to appeal much more to potential customers.”

He added, “Reducing power consumption has a key role to play in economic progression—not just in response to regulations and rising energy prices, but also in terms of future business leads and revenue opportunities. Thus, reducing desktop energy consumption is an easy way for organizations to avoid needless costs, as well as gain an invaluable competitive advantage.”